Radar and Optical Characterization of an Anomalous Orbital Debris Population

Sridharan, R.; Beavers, W. I.; Gaposchkin, E. M.; Lambour, R.; Kansky, Jan; Stansbery, Eileen K.

doi:10.2514/2.3485

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…It was standard procedure for a time to eject the nuclear core from the Bouk reactors into a higher disposal orbit. The ejection apparently breached the heat transfer loops and the NaK leaked out in spherical droplets at low relative velocities 6,7 . This does not appear to be the source of the SNAPSHOT debris.…”

Section: Snapshotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of a debris cloud from the nuclear powered SNAPSHOT satellite with haystack radar measurements

Stokely¹,

Stansbery²

2008

Advances in Space Research

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Data from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL) Long Range Imaging Radar (known as the Haystack radar) have been used in the past to examine families of objects from individual satellite breakups or families of orbiting objects that can be isolated in altitude and inclination. This is possible because for some time after a breakup, the debris cloud of particles can remain grouped together in similar orbit planes. This cloud will be visible to the radar, in fixed staring mode, for a short time twice each day, as the orbit plane moves through the field of view. There should be a unique three-dimensional pattern in observation time, range, and range rate which can identify the cloud. Eventually, through slightly differing precession rates of the right ascension of ascending node of the debris cloud, the observation time becomes distributed so that event identification becomes much more difficult.Analyses of the patterns in observation time, range, and range rate have identified good debris candidates released from the polar orbiting SNAPSHOT satellite (International Identifier: 1965-027A). For orbits near 90 o inclination, there is essentially no precession of the orbit plane. The SNAPSHOT satellite is a well known nuclear powered satellite launched in 1965 to a near circular 1300 km orbit with an inclination of 90.3 o . This satellite began releasing debris in 1979 with new pieces being discovered and cataloged over the years. 51 objects are still being tracked by the United States Space Surveillance Network. An analysis of the Haystack data has identified at least 60 pieces of debris separate from the 51 known tracked debris pieces, where all but 2 of the 60 pieces have a size less than 10cm. The altitude and inclination (derived from range-rate with a circular orbit assumption) are consistent with the SNAPSHOT satellite and its tracked debris cloud.

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Section: Snapshotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of a debris cloud from the nuclear powered SNAPSHOT satellite with haystack radar measurements

Stokely¹,

Stansbery²

2008

Advances in Space Research

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“…In the so-called US GMD (Ground-based Midcourse Defense, one component of the Ballistic Missile Defense), several kinds of radars, XBR, UEWR, Cobra Dane, FBX-T and AN/SPY-1, are used as major or secondary sensors [1]. Nowadays, along with the increase in number of orbital objects such as satellites, space shuttles and space stations, there has been increasing interest in the specification and characterization of the orbital debris by radars or optical sensors [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the influence of Rocket booster to radar observation

Xia

Jing

Chen

2008

2008 2nd International Symposium on Systems and Control in Aerospace and Astronautics

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On the possible influence of Rocket 2nd booster or debris (i.e., by-product of the separation) to radar observation, the concept of ROIO (Radar Overlapped Image Orbit) is introduced. In this paper, the geometry between the radar location and the trajectory plane are described, the orbit determination method of ROIO in space is also proposed, the case of two or more radars is discussed and the influence caused by the earth's rotation is analyzed as well. Simulation results indicate that the influence is neglectable; the original orbit's ROIOs are determined by radar observation range and the geometry between the radar's location and the trajectory plane. Finally, some recommendations are presented on how to avoid ROIOs to affect the determination of the target's orbit.

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“…These were caused by Soviet RORSAT vehicle nuclear reactor ejections through the 1980s. This source has been studied extensively [38][39][40][41][42][43]. The droplets were leaked through opened radiator tubing and formed nearly spherical shapes while in their initial liquid form.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The predicted growth of the low-Earth orbit space debris environment — an assessment of future risk for spacecraft

Krisko

2007

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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Abstract:Space debris is a worldwide-recognized issue concerning the safety of commercial, military, and exploration spacecraft. The space debris environment includes both naturally occuring meteoroids and objects in Earth orbit that are generated by human activity, termed orbital debris. Space agencies around the world are addressing the dangers of debris collisions to both crewed and robotic spacecraft. In the United States, the Orbital Debris Program Office at the NASA Johnson Space Center leads the effort to categorize debris, predict its growth, and formulate mitigation policy for the environment from low Earth orbit (LEO) through geosynchronous orbit (GEO). This paper presents recent results derived from the NASA long-term debris environment model, LEGEND. It includes the revised NASA sodium potassium droplet model, newly corrected for a factor of two over-estimation of the droplet population. The study indicates a LEO environment that is already highly collisionally active among orbital debris larger than 1 cm in size. Most of the modeled collision events are non-catastrophic (i.e., They lead to a cratering of the target, but no large scale fragmentation.). But they are potentially mission-ending, and take place between impactors smaller than 10 cm and targets larger than 10 cm. Given the small size of the impactor these events would likely be undetectable by present-day measurement means. The activity continues into the future as would be expected. Impact rates of about four per year are predicted by the current study within the next 30 years, with the majority of targets being abandoned intacts (spent upper stages and spacecraft). Still, operational spacecraft do show a small collisional activity, one that increases over time as the small fragment population increases. IntroductionThe growth of orbital debris in low Earth orbit (LEO) and beyond has continued since the beginning of the space age. The launching into orbit and abandonment of spent satellites (i.e., upper stages and spacecraft (payloads)) at end-of-life has certainly contributed to that growth. However, more insidious sources such as accidental explosions of satellites and release of material or objects by design or accident have contributed to much higher fluxes of orbiting debris over the years. Though these objects are generally much less massive than their intact parents, they still represent dangerous possible impactors. Existing international programs of orbital debris study are dedicated to impact testing with accompanying simulations [1][2][3], remote and in-situ measurements of the near-Earth environment [4][5][6][7][8][9], and debris environment modeling [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. National safety standards with respect to the protection of spacecraft from 1 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20070024897 2018-05-09T04:35:43+00:00Z orbital debris impacts have grown around these research efforts [28][29][30][31]. Recognizing the issue as international has led to cooperation in the study ...

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Radar and Optical Characterization of an Anomalous Orbital Debris Population

Cited by 7 publications

References 6 publications

Identification of a debris cloud from the nuclear powered SNAPSHOT satellite with haystack radar measurements

Identification of a debris cloud from the nuclear powered SNAPSHOT satellite with haystack radar measurements

Study on the influence of Rocket booster to radar observation

The predicted growth of the low-Earth orbit space debris environment — an assessment of future risk for spacecraft

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